


Take it back

by Satanic_Sewist



Category: On The Hill (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Angst for days baby, I don't directly state it but Brew's science thing has something to do with the HHC/HRC, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Trans Charles, brew and charles are both in the wrong? idk maybe, brew and charles are implied to have autism, idk if this is good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28114839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Satanic_Sewist/pseuds/Satanic_Sewist
Summary: Brew and Charles have an argument that causes their friendship to collapse
Relationships: Brew/Lifehack
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Take it back

“Hey, Brew, can you let me in?” 

Charles had just gotten to his friend Brew’s house and instead of heading to the door, he had decided to knock on Brew’s window. Brew wasn’t his real name, of course, it was just a nickname he had gotten from his love of coffee. He didn’t mind the nickname, in fact, he quite liked it, it had a nice ring to it. 

“Oh, sorry about that.” Brew had gotten up from his desk and opened up the window for Charles. He never understood why Charles preferred to enter his house this way, but after so many years, he had stopped questioning it. Once the window was open, Charles climbed through the window and jumped down to the floor. He attempted to land on his feet, but he lost his balance and ended up falling.

Brew chuckled slightly at his friend’s fall, “Are you alright?” he asked, helping Charles to his feet.

“Of course I am,” he replied, brushing himself off. It had been a few weeks since he had been at Brew’s place, as it was the beginning of the school year and the two had been busy getting adjusted. Back during the summer, the two had tried to hang out almost every day, but now that they were in school, they barely had time to hang out, seeing as Charles was in tenth grade and Brew was in twelfth and the two had different lunch periods. At least they were at the same school this time, as where they lived, ninth grade had its own school.

“So, how has high school been treating you?” Brew asked Charles, who was now sitting on his bed. He knew that the younger male tended to struggle in academic environments, by no means was he not smart, he was quite intelligent in fact, Charles just tended to be better at creative assignments. Both of them struggled to make friends, Brew because he was an introvert and Charles because he and his peers found it hard to relate, so neither boy had made any new friends.

“I’m not failing any classes yet, so that’s good,” Charles answered. Truth be told, Charles had never ‘failed’ a class before, sure he struggled in math and English, but the lowest he ever got in those classes was a C-, thanks to Brew helping him out. Brew was great at academics, the only thing keeping him from being in all honors classes was his tendency to forget deadlines and stay home instead of going to school. He had agoraphobia, so going into crowded spaces often made him very uncomfortable.

“It’s not even halfway through the first quarter, so I’m glad you aren’t failing,” Brew remarked. “Other than your grades, how has school been?”

Charles started playing with his hair, “I was able to convince some of my teachers to call me Charles.” He was transgender and had been out since middle school, yet most people at school still struggle to or flat out refused to refer to him the way he wanted to.

Brew nodded, “That’s good, hopefully, more of them will come around soon.” Brew was the first person Charles had come out to and Brew helped him research about the trans community and help him find ways to pass as a male better. Being a man of science, he fully understood how someone being transgender was perfectly normal and that they were born like that, even though most wouldn’t realize it until later.

“I doubt it, but it doesn’t bother me much,” Charles dismissed. It did bother him though, he hated how most people viewed him as a girl, no matter what he did. Even though he dressed masculinely and acted like any other boy, people still thought he was a girl, and when he told them his name and pronouns, most would just ignore him. He had learned to block all of them out a long time ago, but it still hurt him. “Anyway, how have you been?”

“Same as usual I suppose, so far I’ve gone to school almost every day, I’ve only missed two days,” Brew replied.

“Awesome!” Charles exclaimed, “This is your last year of high school, so hopefully everything goes well!”

Brew smiled, “I hope things go well for you too.” Not that Charles was a troublemaker or anything, but it wasn’t abnormal for him to be in the principal’s office due to him getting in trouble with his peers. They were often just misunderstandings, but he took things very seriously and often would take things too far and get in trouble.

“Hey, do you have the craft stuff I left here?” Charles asked, changing the subject. Brew knew that Charles would sometimes leave things at his house, claiming that he forgot them, but he knew that Charles left them there because he was afraid of his parents finding them. Charles’s parents weren’t great, they often neglected him or yelled at him for no reason, but they also didn’t appreciate his interest in crafting, saying that it was ‘useless’ and a waste of time’.

“You’re referring to the hot glue gun you left on the kitchen table, right?” Brew asked

Charles nodded, “Yep, that’s the one.”

“Ok, I’ll go get it, you can wait here,” Brew said before leaving the room. Now, Charles could have just sat there and waited, but he was never good at sitting still. He got up from Brew’s bed and began pacing around his room. He knew that room like the back of his hand, everything was messy yet organized in its own way like Brew was. While pacing, he accidentally knocked some papers off of Brew’s desk. As well as he knew the layout of the room, his poor spatial reasoning still messed things up.

Quickly, he went to pick up the papers, hoping that Brew wouldn’t notice that they were out of place. Without thinking, he glanced at the paper in his hand. It appeared to be a letter, judging from the formatting. Brew didn’t have a penpal or anything, did he? Curious like always, Charles decided to read the letter.  
His curiosity was replaced with shock. His eyes darted around the page, looking at the words over and over, hoping he read them wrong. But he had read everything correctly, at some point, despite the fact it was early in the school year, Brew had applied to some science program and they had accepted his application. Which meant that he would be leaving after this school year and summer were over.

“Oh, you found it...” Brew had reentered his room, holding Charles’s hot glue gun. Charles turned to face the brunette, trying desperately to stop himself from crying. 

“Why wouldn’t you tell me that you were going to leave?” Charles said in a quiet voice, something he hardly ever did.

“I’m not ‘leaving’, as you put it, I’m simply going through a program so I can become more advanced in my field and hopefully get a job in it,” Brew explained.

“Well, I-I get that, but you are still going away for a while a-and you never told me,” Charles reasoned, his voice getting shaky like it always did when he was upset.

Brew sighed, “I didn’t tell you because I knew you would get upset.”

“So hiding it from me was the better choice?” Charles questioned.

“It was the most logical thing to do,” Brew replied.

“I’m not a goddamn puzzle you can use logic to solve! I’m your friend!” Charles yelled, feeling tears sting his eyes and fall down his face.

Brew’s expression softened, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have kept this from you. It’s just...this is something I really want Charles, something that would be good for me. We still have the rest of the school year together and while I’m there, we can still talk over the phone if you want.”

Charles didn’t find any comfort in his words, “Stop trying to convince me that everything is fine. It’s not fine, my only friend is going away soon and I’ll have to be alone.”

“I’m not trying to convince you of anything, I’m just telling you that things aren’t as bad as you are making them out to be. It’s only going to be for a few years and it’s not like I’ll never see you again. I just wish you would be happy for me.” Brew said.

Charles’s sadness turned into anger, “I’m supposed to be happy? Happy that you get what you want and I lose the only person I care about?” 

Brew sighed again, “Charles…” 

“How can you tell me how I’m supposed to feel?” Charles yelled.  
“I can’t and I’m not trying to, I...I just don’t want to see you upset by something that I’m doing,” Brew explained.

“We only have each other…” Charles mumbled under his breath.

“What?” Brew asked?

“You used to say that to me when we were kids, that we only have each other,” Charles repeated.

“Things were more simple back then, now it’s a lot more complicated,” Brew refuted.

“Because now you have a future and don’t need someone like me,” Charles growled.

Brew was caught off guard, “Don’t say things like that! I know you are hurt but don’t get overemotional!”

“Well at least I have emotions and I’m not some robot!” Charles yelled. As he realized what he said, he brought his hands to his mouth in shock, wishing he could take it back. Brew had always had a hard time connecting with others because of his trouble with emotions, as he had a hard time expressing them and tended to seem emotionless, though he did have them. Charles had the opposite, his emotions being loud and hard to control, though he tried his hardest while at school. 

Brew just stood there for a moment, not looking Charles in the eye, instead staring straight ahead. . He extended his hand to give Charles the glue gun back and simply said, “I think you should leave,” in a stern, icy voice.

Charles wanted to say something to make things better, but instead, he just spat out, “Fine, I know where I’m not wanted,” Before running out of Brew’s room and out the front door.

Brew sighed and sat down at his desk, placing his head in his hands. Why couldn’t Charles be happy for him? Perhaps it was a bad idea to hide it from him, but Charles shouldn’t have gotten that upset, right? He could feel himself starting to cry, but he did nothing about it. He sat there for a few minutes before wiping his eyes with his sleeve and turning on his computer since he had homework to do. He didn’t want to go to school tomorrow, but it was in his best interest too.

Charles kept on running, he couldn’t go home yet and he couldn’t go to Brew’s house, so he had nowhere to go. After running for what felt like forever, he found a tree he could sit under. He remembered how he used to climb trees when he was younger while Brew read a book underneath the shade. Back then, it was only Brew and him, but now, Brew had better things to do. Charles sat next to the tree, leaning his back on its trunk and holding his knees close to his chest. He didn’t want to have to face everything alone. Maybe he could make new friends? He doubted that anyone would even like him. As he thought about everything, he felt tears roll down his face. He shouldn’t be crying, this was all his fault. He had taken everything too far, he got upset instead of being happy for Brew. He had insulted Brew. He was the one who ruined their friendship. When he stopped yelling at himself in his head, he noticed that the sun had already set. How long had he been sitting there for? Regardless of how he felt, he had to head back to his house. As he stood up and started walking, he felt the cool wind surround him. Charles began walking faster, as he hated being outside this late.

Maybe he was better off alone.

The End.


End file.
